I recently found some beta cassettes at a thrift store. I'm surprized that I have NEVER seen one, because I'm 40, and have used a vcr for 10 years, and I'm always looking through used things.

I don't have a beta vcr.
One tape had the "Statue of Liberty 100th aniversary" from July 4 '86. I remember that when it aired, and I like the mid 80's so I got the tape)

Everything is being transfered to dvd anyway. I'm wondering if these beta's are worth getting....maybe for the better quality?

hi, yes beta tapes are of interest, especially if they have rare hard to find shows. thanks stoogedog

hi, yes beta tapes are of interest, especially if they have rare hard to find shows. thanks stoogedog

That's right, Never pass-up anything beta especially if you can get it el-cheapo from a thrift store. One rule of thumb about beta, vhs or laserdisc is that if it hasn't been released on dvd, It's usually sought after by someone. You might want to keep your eyes open for a good beta vcr also, I purchased a Sony Hi-Fi with remote in the original box at a thrift store for $15 and unloaded it on eBay for $275. You can probably find one just as cheap if you look.

Thanks. But is beta of more interest than vhs? If so, why?

Years ago, I copied all my Beta tapes (about eighty). It took about a couple years to finish transferring all of them to VHS, but I still have the Beta tapes. I held onto them in case I ever had to copy them again.

Yes. Like everyone has said, finding old Betas can be a gold mine. If you have a list of what you have, I'd be interested in seeing it.

hi, i would like to see the list as well. let us know what you have. thanks stoogedog

Yes. Like everyone has said, finding old Betas can be a gold mine. If you have a list of what you have, I'd be interested in seeing it.

See revised list below (sorry for the duplicate post; there was a glitch somewhere when I first tried
to post it).

Thanks. But is beta of more interest than vhs? If so, why?

Beta was the first format that came out, so the oldest stuff will be found there. The VHS and DVD eras have overlapped, so lots of what you can find on VHS, you can get on DVD, except TV specials, TV movies and sporting events, which rarely make it to DVD.

I haven't used my Beta VCR in several years, so I don't know whether any of these tapes are still
watchable. (Missing numbers are damaged, misplaced or reserved tapes.)

1 - Rocky & Bullwinkle ("Box Top Robbery")
2 - Incredible Hulk (TV pilot) / Cartoons / Tales of the Gold Monkey
3 - Batman (Adam West) / Super Friends / Wonderful World of Those Cuckoo, Crazy Animals
(Documentary) / Three Stooges / Cartoons
4 - Yabba Dabba Doo! The Happy Land of Hanna-Barbera
6 - Beatles (cartoons) / Fonz & the Happy Days Gang / Charlie's Angels / Paul McCartney
7 - Mr. Magoo & Gerald McBoing-Boing / Wonder Woman (pilot) / Dudley Do-Right
8 - Flintstones ("Ann-Margrock Presents") / Incredible Hulk ("King of the Beach") / On Vacation
with Mickey Mouse
9 - Rainbow Over Texas (1946; Roy Rogers) / Bonanza ("Ponderosa Matador") / Mel Blanc
10 - Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Summer Vacation
11 - Ziggy's Gift / That's What Friends Are For (Hanna-Barbera retrospective) / Winnie the Pooh &
Tigger, Too / Fantastic Funnies (hosted by Loni Anderson)
12 - Li'l Abner (1959)
13 - Return to Mayberry / Zorro (cartoon)
15 - Whatever Became Of ...? / Beatles (cartoons) / Cisco Kid / B.C.: The First Thanksgiving
16 - Incredible Mr. Limpet (Don Knotts) / Cartoons
18 - Walt Disney: One Man's Dream
19 - Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In / Woody Woodpecker / ABC Saturday Preview / A Chipmunk
Christmas / Laurel & Hardy in "The Music Box" (poor quality; bad TV reception)
20 - Lone Ranger / Here Comes Garfield / A Charlie Brown Celebration / Betty Boop (poor)
21 - Superman: The Movie / Casper & Friends
22 - Hey There, It's Yogi Bear / Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (poor) / Monkees
23 - Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All (1979; animated TV-movie)
24 - Gay Purr-ee (fair) / Flintstones (1st Pebbles) / Walter Lantz / George Reeves / Paul McCartney
25 - Amazing Spider-Man (1977; TV pilot; fair) / Beverly Hillbillies (pilot; fair) / Marvel Action Universe
26 - McLintock! (John Wayne) / Don Adams / Linda Ronstadt / Buffalo Bob Smith / Dale Messick
27 - Marvel Superheroes (Captain America cartoon) / Gillgan's Planet / Blondie in Society (1941)
29 - Merv Griffin interview with Disney artists Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston / Thank You, Mr.
President (J.F.K. press conferences) / Star Wars / John Lennon & Yoko Ono
31 - Addams Family / Thundarr the Barbarian / F-Troop (poor) / Gary Collins interview with June Foray /
Davey & Goliath / Beatles (cartoons) / Amos 'n' Andy (poor)
32 - Beatles (cartoons) / Sneak Previews (Beatles movies) / Muppet Movie / Gidget (pilot)
33 - Oh! Heavenly Dog / Jackson 5 (cartoon) / Gary Collins interview with cast of sitcom "Dennis the
Menace" / Little Lulu (ABC Weekend Special; poor)
34 - Jennifer Slept Here (1982; Ann Jillian; pilot) / Facts of Life (guest star Jermaine Jackson) / The
Maltese Falcon / Interviews with June Foray, Bill Scott, Bela Lugosi, George Burns, Janet Waldo,
and Brigitte Nielsen ("Red Sonja")
39 - V (1984) / Inspector Gadget / Honeymooners Reunion
40 - Prince Valiant (1954; Robert Wagner; poor) / Masters of the Universe (cartoon) / Cosby Show
42 - Dinosaur! (1986 documentary hosted by Christopher Reeve) / Dumbo / Scooby-Doo
43 - Magical Mystery Tour (1967; The Beatles) / Flying Nun / Bugs Bunny-Looney Tunes All-Star 50th
Anniversary (1986) / NBC Nightly News (Jan. 29, 1986; Challenger space shuttle tragedy) /
Laff-a-lympics
45 - Annie / NBC's 60th Anniversary Celebration (1985; Pt. 2; see also #47) / Twilight Zone
46 - Incredible Hulk ("Prometheus") / ABC's Wide World of Sports 25th Anniversary
47 - Disney's Robin Hood (cartoon) / NBC's 60th Anniversary Celebration (1985; Pt. 1)
48 - Flintstones' 25th Anniversary / Footsteps of Giants (NASA documentary) / Twilight Zone / My
Friend Liberty (1986 animated special) / Amazing Stories
50 - Small Wonder (pilot; fair) / Columbo (fair) / Twilight Zone / I Love Lucy ("Lucy Makes a Commer-
cial" / Defenders of the Earth
51 - Andy Griffith Show (Gomer Pyle, USMC pilot) / ALF / Splash
53 - Sign of Zorro (1960; Guy Williams) / Great Moments in Disney Animation (with Carol Burnett) /
Silver Hawks (continued on #58)
54 - Twilight Zone ("Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"; fair) / Topper (2 episodes) / The Three Stooges Meet
Hercules (fair)
56 - Star Trek / Smurfs / Three Stooges / Superman (1953; George Reeves)
57 - The Spirit (1987; TV-movie; Sam Jones) / Yogi's Treasure Hunt / Three Stooges / Jem
58 - Silver Hawks (see #53) / Charmings / Max Headroom (pilot) / Jonny Quest / Jetsons / G.I. Joe
59 - Ghostbusters / ALF (cartoon) / Disney's Alice in Wonderland / Sledge Hammer! / Charmings /
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
60 - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock / Knight Rider / Honeymooners / Gunsmoke (guest star James
Drury)
61 - Shaggy Dog (1959) / Francis (1950; Donald O'Connor; 1st in the series) / Godzilla (1956)
62 - Cosby Show / The Empire Strikes Back / Wyatt Earp
63 - The Wolfman (1941; Lon Chaney Jr.; poor) / It's Howdy Doody Time! A 40-Year Celebration (1987)
/ Barbie & the Rockers / Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (fair)
64 - Frosty the Snowman / A Charlie Brown Christmas / How the Grinch Stole Christmas / Rudolph the
Red-Nosed Reindeer / A Garfield Christmas Special / A Claymation Christmas / Santa Claus: The
Making of the Movie
66 - Werewolf / ALF / Television: Comedy / Wizard of Oz / Superman's 50th Anniversary (1988)
67 - Hollywood Legends: Marilyn Monroe / Bacall on Bogart / Beauty and the Beast
68 - Darby O'Gill and the Little People / Superman II / Twilight Zone
69 - Creature From the Black Lagoon (poor) / Tarzan and His Mate (poor) / Mighty Mouse / Happy
Birthday, Garfield
71 - Bob Hope: Happy Birthday, Bob--50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years with NBC (1988) / Incredible
Hulk Returns (1988; TV-movie) / Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures
72 - Dukes of Hazzard / Charmings / Blue Lagoon / DuckTales ("Back to the Klondike"; fair)
73 - Yogi's Treasure Hunt / ALF / Family Ties / Bewitched / Beany & Cecil (1988; poor)
75 - Yogi's Gang / Star Trek Saga: From One Generation to the Next / The African Queen (1951)
(Nos. 76-82 are VHS.)
83 - Linda Ronstadt / Jetsons / The Three Stooges / Superboy / Happy Days

(Whew! You can see why it took over two years to transfer all the shows!)

One tape had the "Statue of Liberty 100th aniversary" from July 4 '86. I remember that when it aired, and I like the mid 80's so I got the tape)

Hi, I was wondering when you get this transferred if you could list the celebs who were featured? I'm curious who was featured. Of if you need it transferred, I'd be happy to do it for you, I have a beta vcr and can put it on dvd and send the dvd/beta tape back to you!

surfergirl :wave:

Beta was the first format that came out, so the oldest stuff will be found there. The VHS and DVD eras have overlapped, so lots of what you can find on VHS, you can get on DVD, except TV specials, TV movies and sporting events, which rarely make it to DVD.

Cartrivision and U-Matic tapes preceded beta but those are hard to find and players aren't cheap. I found a U-matic player at Goodwill 2 years ago but it didn't have the power supply and I haven't found one for it yet.

http://www.labguysworld.com/Tape-CartV_008.jpg
Cartrivision


http://www.tvprogear.com/images/Virtual%20Pages/U-Matic%20Tape.jpg
U-Matic

That's interesting. I didn't even know there was a format that preceded
Beta. Now I don't feel quite so "ancient." :lol:

Beta is a better format visually than VHS and the tapes are heartier, most broadcast companies still use Beta (if they haven't switched to digital) becaues of the quality.

That list you posted of your Beta tapes is pretty great, I'd love to get a hole of some of that stuff. I know some people on this board are capable of transfering Beta to DVD

That's interesting. I didn't even know there was a format that preceded
Beta. Now I don't feel quite so "ancient"! :lol:

Don't feel bad, When I bought the JVC U-Matic player, I thought it was a portable vhs unit. I didn't notice that it wasn't until I tried to insert a tape and seen that it was too small. It was only after researching the model # online that I was finally able to learn exactly what I'd bought.

The U-matic cartridges look a lot like standard broadcast 3/4" tapes. I got to work with those for a bit awhile back. 3/4 is great, very hearty, and tends to transfer to other formats well.

Hi, I was wondering when you get this transferred if you could list the celebs who were featured? I'm curious who was featured. Of if you need it transferred, I'd be happy to do it for you, I have a beta vcr and can put it on dvd and send the dvd/beta tape back to you!

surfergirl :wave:


Actually I can answer this because I found this on beta too. The celebrations ran two days (oddily even though I lived in NYC my whole life I really didn't remember this):

July 3rd Classical Saulte: NY Philharmonic,Zubin Mehta,Placido Domingo,Marilyn Horne,Sherrill Milnes,Itzhak Perlman;Kirk Douglas and Angela Lansbury as presenters

July 3rd Closing Ceremonies: Manhattan Transfer, Gerry Mulligan, Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Bobby Rydell, The Temptations, Billy Preston, Patti LaBelle, Shirley MacLaine, Gene Kelly, The Pointer Sisters, Liza Minnelli, George H.W. Bush, presenters Cicely Tyson, Charleston Heston

July 4th Americana Music Concert: Boston Pops with John Williams, Melissa Manchester, John Denver, Whitney Houston, Johnny Cash, Barry Manlow, Joel Grey; Simon Estes, James Whitmore as presenter

My version has some of the commercials for the July 3rd and I believe all or most from the 4th (I guess they were blowing firecrackers off outside at the time.)

To answer Better Days, yes beta tapes are very valued. One because the quality is much better than VHS* and two because as beta owners switched over to VHS some of them still kept their beta tapes and thus they weren't taped over like VHS tapes.

*Beta machines were superior to VHS machines, but one of the main reasons VHS won the VCR war is because when there was a problem with a VHS machine it was usually mechanical which is fixable, but when there was a problem with a beta machine it was usually a problem with a electronic one which can't be fix and too many of these problems were occurring with consumers.

tv star collector great list is why a gamble on beta tapes is worth it.

*Beta machines were superior to VHS machines, but one of the main reasons VHS won the VCR war is because when there was a problem with a VHS machine it was usually mechanical which is fixable, but when there was a problem with a beta machine it was usually a problem with a electronic one which can't be fix and too many of these problems were occurring with consumers.


Question - I thought another reason VHS won the format war was because it offered longer recording time - the 6 hour EP/SLP mode. I didn't think there was an equivalent mode in Beta, but I could be wrong. This would have been important back then I'm sure, since blank tape cost around $30.

FWIW, I did some Beta to DVDR conversions a couple years ago when I still had a functional Beta unit. I didn't think the quality was way better than VHS, but maybe the tapes I was converting hadn't aged too well. I know the Beta recording is technically better quality, but visually it didn't look like there was too much of a difference.

*Beta machines were superior to VHS machines, but one of the main reasons VHS won the VCR war is because when there was a problem with a VHS machine it was usually mechanical which is fixable, but when there was a problem with a beta machine it was usually a problem with a electronic one which can't be fix and too many of these problems were occurring with consumers.



Another BIG reason that beta lost out is because it is proprietary technology owned by Sony, and they wouldn't share.

There were a number of important reasons why the beta format didn't survive (and the ones listed above are among them) ... the additional time a VHS tape had probably was important to those who were shopping for their first VCR and who were will to trade-off some picture quality for the additional time (my experience is that in SP the two were pretty close, but when you when into the EP modes the differences were more noticeable.)

The proprietary technology issues was what really hurt Macs in their battle with PCs so drawing from that I can see where beta got hurt there. I focused on that one issue I brought up because in my experience I knew people who loved the beta format, but just got sick of dealing with a seemingly tempermental machine.

Also from the Liberty Celebrations:

July 4th Fireworks Display: Ronald Reagan (Speech), George Plimpton, Sam Waterson (performing as Henry David Thoreau in a saulte to liberty)

Surfergirl, I'll take you up on you're offer to transfer my Beta tape to DVD. You can just send me back a DVD copy; you can keep the tape.

If things dont work out with surfergirl, msg me. I have 2 SuperBeta machines. They were the last generation and gave the best playback. I can transfer them to DVD. Take Care! Good Find.

Interesting enough (or not so) I found a VHS of the July 3rd closing ceremonies along with the local news and some Andy Griffin late night movie with the commercials intact. The tapes isn't in that good a shape though

I have some of that Statue of Liberty Liberty Weekend coverage from 1986 on beta too. I have 4 beta decks, four 3/4 inch machines and more beta and umatic tapes than I probably have on VHS!

Aj